The Hot Docs festival wrapped 10 days of pitching, parties and a record number of sold-out screenings on May 2, making 2004 the festival’s most successful year to date.

Winnipeg production company Les Productions Rivard, formed in 1995 by Louis Paquin and Charles Lavack to enhance the voice of francophone communities in Western Canada, continues to pursue this goal with five projects currently in production including the company’s first sojourn into the HD format.

After only one week at theaters, Dans une galaxie pres de chez vous, a feature from Montreal’s Zone3 based on its popular Quebec youth TV series, passed the $1-million mark at the box office and now boasts the fifth-highest opening-week gross in Quebec history.

Quebec producers are teaming up to address some of the province’s most pressing production issues at the Association des Producteurs de Films et de Television du Quebec annual congress, to be held May 4-6 at Hotel Loews Le Concorde in Quebec City.

When Hot Docs was in its infancy more than a decade ago, a key objective, according to one of the festival’s founders, Rudy Buttignol, was engaging the public in documentary film, and, 11 years later, the festival has exceeded expectations in this regard.

No longer associated with science class films on the lifecycle of an amoeba, documentary films are now very much swimming in the mainstream.

After three years on-air, CBC current affairs program Disclosure will not be renewed for a fourth season, marking the second cut to the pubcaster’s current-affairs lineup. In March, CBC announced that this would be the last season for debate-style talk show counterSpin, which has been running for six years.

For many Canadians, spring means the end of the regular hockey season and the beginning of the NHL playoffs. This year, with five out of six Canadian teams making it to the first round, hockey fever seems higher than usual, setting the stage for the release of a homegrown film set against the backdrop of the 1972 Canada-USSR hockey series.

Host Alanis Morissette got nearly naked, there were more musical performances than any other year in the Juno’s 33-year history, and it was the most-watched show in Canada on Sunday, April 4. However, the 2004 Juno Awards, broadcast live from Edmonton’s Rexall Place by CTV, drew significantly fewer viewers than last year.

Producer Chris Zimmer of Halifax-based imX communications is currently shooting The River King, a $16-million feature starring Jennifer Ehle (Pride and Prejudice) and Edward Burns (Confidence).
Directed by Brit Nick Willing, the feature is based on Alice Hoffman’s novel of the same name, adapted by David Kane. The U.K./Canada copro is a mystery thriller about a small-town cop, played by Burns, whose investigation into a young man’s death is aided by visits from the deceased’s spirit.

Things are going to be a little different at this year’s Genies, with Quebec films better represented than ever and the Genie broadcast torch passing to CHUM from CBC. The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced the nominees for the 24th annual Genie Awards March 16, with the event to be held in Toronto May 1.

The story remains the same at the domestic box office, with four of the top five Canadian films coming from Quebec.